The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1887-08-05
NO. 46.

SNiChSO thHt 40 iAOb OutJ NiSooIlO0o Uub
extremely alarming.
The growing extravaganza in our
customs naturally breeds embezzlers
among employees of private firms, and
brings forth boodiers in our municipal
governments.
To arrest these evils which threaten
the perpetuity Of our institutions we
must go back to first principles and i'm.
bue the rising generation with honest
purposes, that are at once in complete
harmony with justice, right and truth.
The cost of intemperaoce brings mil
lions of our industrial classes to the
verge of physical and moral ruin, and
the wrongs perpatrated upon iuno-
cent victims cry to heaven. This ques.
tion demands the best thought of every
educator. .-.....
Shall the rich Shylocks of the great
cities destroy confidence in legitimate
trade by their wholesale manufacture of
vile limitations of hones. prodncts?
Shall Boards Of Trade and Stock Ex-
chages undermine the morals of our
people with legalized gambling opera
tions, and control the prices of our pro.
duce, and the volume Of our money?
Shall Autocratic Railway Corporations
continue to rob the people by unjust
overcharges for service, and by dis.
orimination build up other monopolies
to oppress and impoverish the prodnct.
i've classes?
Our Nation has surpassed all others
known to history in its wonderful devel.
opement of material wealth. Let us
take warning that we do not repeat the
history Of the old Roman Empire which
in the season of its highest prosperity
planted deep the sure seeds Of dissolu-
tion and decay.
We may cry peace, peace, but there
is no peace, while desperate conflict
between capital and labor, bstween
great corporations and the wealth pro-
ducers of our country, is being fsrcely
waged.
In order to render the fragrant
wrongs above indicated impossible in
the future the rising generation must
be SO instructed that it will naturally
love justice aud obey its behests, and
instinctively give honor to those pur.
suits in life that are based on honest
effort, for truly the child is father to
the man, and what We need is Nation
of better men.
We believe in so amending the Pub
lie and other School Systems that the
education Of our children shall be of
practical help to them in after-life.
The theoretical plan that now obtains
infects many with the idea that physi.
cal labor is not genteel. This senti-
ment tends to create q helpless class
whose inevitable drift is toward the
almshouse and prison. Our country
needs an educational system based on
moral, manual and intellectual training
that inculcates the essential dignity and
necessity of honest labor.
In the last few years, especially in
this country, there has been an alarm
ing disregard of moral obligations. Ia
reaching for fortune men Of standing
have utterly defed the moral law.
Gambling, if done in the name of COM
merce, has become respectable; decep-
tion in business transactions is the rule
of some Of our most profitable business
enterprises, such az adulterating food
products. A comparatively few have
taken high moral grounds iu opposition
to these evils, and have argued that
decent morality should prevent men
from descending so low. But the vast
majority Of our people have paid little
attention to the subject, and to be can
did our children have been growing up
under such perniciols influences as
wealth, whether improperly obtained
or otherwise, always exeFts, with tue
impression that regard for moral prin-
ciple is obsolete old fogyism. There
must be means adopted to counteract
these influences, or the future of our
children Is anything but promising;
and what way will better insure this
result than to make the teaching Of
moral principle and moral conduct a
part of our common school system OF
education? Make it part of the train.
ing school system. While training the
physical and mental it is crime to let
the moral go unframed.
The hope Of this country and the
world depends upon education, and
such an education as will endow the
individual with self.respect, and make
him selfsupporting. There is nothing
that will aid this republic SO well as
thorough education of the masses at
any cost. Education is cheaper than
prisons, cheaper than scaffolds, and
cheaper than rifles and cannon. The
expense ought not to be considered for
moment by any sound patriot and
we'll wisher of his race
The hope Of the future is in the pres
ent, and if right impulses are planted
deep in the hearts aud minds of the
rising generation, they will bring forth
nouar and frnifaoa of onod fo humanifu